The scary truth about commuting

In a column in this week’s Globe and Mail Report on Business, writer Michael Babad comments on a report from BMO Nesbitt Burns senior economist Robert Kavcic about housing prices in Toronto and Vancouver, our two on-fire markets, pushing ever higher. Where we’ve all read dozens of reports that prices are going up and some extrapolations as to why, Kavcic commented on an aspect I’ve touched on in this column a time or two — how those higher prices drive (no pun intended) residents to commute further and further distances to work.

Babad notes that the Toronto Region Board of Trade has also reported that Toronto’s commute times are longer than that for residents of other big cities. There has been some research done on the effects of longer commutes, and none of it points to it being good for you.

In 2014, a USA Today report estimated the average American’s commute to work at 25.5 minutes each way, which if you’ve tried to get from Mississauga or Oshawa to the core during rush hour probably makes you laugh.

According to the University School of Medicine in Saint Louis and Cooper Institute in Dallas report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, those who drive more than 10 miles (16 km) to work each way are prone to physical effects that range from bothersome to downright scary, including higher blood glucose levels that can lead to prediabetes and diabetes and higher cholesterol, as well as increased depression and anxiety. (And to put that distance in perspective, if you work near Union Station, 16 km only gets you to Victoria Park and the DVP.)

A report out of the UK’s Office of National Statistics around the same time said that commuting resulted in lower life satisfaction and happiness than those who didn’t commute any distance. We may encourage commuters to Ride the Rocket, but their report found that riding a bus for half an hour was associated with the lowest satisfaction levels. Even those who rode their bikes experienced a dip in happiness depending how long they sat in the saddle.

A University of Utah experiment told participants in a simulated driving scenario that they were late to a meeting and gave them a financial incentive to get to work quickly. Half of the participants were put in high-density traffic, the other half in less congested environments. Those in the former group experienced spikes in their blood pressure.

A Texas study also found that the farther commuters lived from work, the higher their blood pressure; high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attacks and stroke. Unsurprisingly, the Texans also found that those with longer commutes tended to have lower levels of cardiovascular fitness and physical activity, which ain’t exactly good for the heart either.

A commute of longer than 45 minutes each way resulted in poorer sleep according to a 2012 Regus Work-Life Balance Index.

A now-12-year-old study by Stutzer and Frey of the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics at the University of Zurich claimed that longer commutes needed to be compensated for by more money — often a lot more, as they found that the amount needed to compensate for the commute was directly correlated to the length of the commute — to result in the same level of happiness, e.g. that for someone who spent an hour in their car, a 40% income hike was required to compensate. And that doesn’t mean the 40% more money made the commuters any happier — it just made them more OK with being unhappy.

To commute or not to commute has been a lifestyle decision available to us since the advent of the suburbs in the mid-20th century. Many families chose big backyards and double-car garages, safe streets for their small fry and neighbourhood block parties over more densely-packed urban living, but it was a choice.

They wanted to live on one income while someone stayed home with the kids, to live in a bigger home, or they just wanted a big dog, and were willing to make sacrifices. As prices continue to skyrocket, that choice is increasingly being taken away. For those who want to own a home, condominiums may be an option, but in the next year or two, they too are likely to become priced out of reach for many, as we become increasingly comfortable with the idea of raising families in urban environments. And renting deprives residents of the natural savings account you enjoy when you own over the long term.

So, what’s the solution? Telecommuting should work for just about any white-collar job these days, but it seems like the same social isolation that can lead to depression in commuters could befall those stuck at home alone all day, and likely to an even greater degree.

How about incentivizing core-based corporations to move further afield? Luring more manufacturers to Canada to set up shop an hour or two outside the city? What about tax cuts for community-based start-ups instead of for big corporations?

While I’m of the mind that we should let the housing market largely regulate itself, I also think our community leaders should be doing everything they can to make conditions favourable in other parts of the province so we don’t all have to work in the city. There are some things, like health and happiness, that money just can’t buy.